The Dragon Bleeds
by BellatrixLestrangey
Summary: Week 6 of the Azula ship challenge; Azula saves a baby dragon from a hunter, but in the attempt she is hit. Katara heals her and makes fun of her for landing herself in such a predicament.


Azula could taste the copper on her lips, it bubbled up so fast and stained her lips red. She could still feel the arrow imbedded somewhere deep in her stomach. She was afraid to speak lest she spill more blood. She could probably only have managed a wet gurgling sound anyhow. It served her right for trying to be noble when she had no business doing so. Even she knew that she'd done something foolish, and she was paying for it. She watched the baby dragon half-leap half-flutter into the bushes. It didn't even stick around to show gratitude. She couldn't quit blame it though; it probably thought that the hunters were still lurking about, it couldn't grasp that they knew that had to run. It was that or stick around and finish her off. Accident or not, they'd face pretty hefty consequences, even though it was technically her own fault for taking the arrow for the beast. She grumbled to herself, considering that maybe she deserved that arrow for being so quick to jump in its path. She struggled to sit herself up right, each movement set a flurry of furious jabs spiderwebbing across her torso. She brought her fingers to the wound wondering if it was a good idea to apply pressure in this instance or if that would only drive the arrowhead in deeper.

Her hopes perked up at the sound of footsteps. Perhaps the men had the decency to turn themselves in and get her some help…more likely they were coming back to finish her off. Instead, what approached her was the baby dragon with a mouth full of berries and a sprig of them in its claws. Azula sighed. It offered her the twig as if that would make up for anything. With a throaty squack, the dragon came to curl around her arm staring at the splotch of red that was slowly expanding. Giving her a quick sniff and dropping the branch into Azula's hand, the dragon darted off once more. She frowned; while the sentiment was nice, she couldn't even eat the berries with an arrow lodged in her belly.

She couldn't tell how much time had gone by, but she was growing dizzy and delirious. Her hand was wet and sticky from getting too near the wound. She worried about infection…not that she'd still be alive to get one. It was becoming too hard to keep herself up right, so she found herself pitching sideways, her hear smacking the ground. She felt a branch or two slice her cheek—the last thing she needed was another escape point for her blood.

"Azula?" a voice cut through her delirium. "Oh God, what happened."

She could only mummer in response, an intangible sound that offered no explanation whatsoever. She felt something fall on her arm. The dragon, she realized, as the sensation of pittering claws scuttled up and down her arm. _What an oblivious creature_ , she thought, almost envying its ignorance.

"Hold still." The voice instructed, implying that she could do anything but that. "I'm going to pull the arrow out and stitch this up."

"Right here?" Azula struggled to ask.

"Yeah, it'll at least hold you over until we can fix it up better. I have some water so that should make this easier." Azula recognized the voice now. It was Katara. Any reluctance she had ebbed away like the blood from her body. Katara pressed a soft kiss to Azula's cheek before cautiously rolling her onto her back. She healed the cuts on her cheek first, to save her at least a little strife and then got to work on the arrow.

Azula couldn't help but flinch as Katara yanked the arrow out. She didn't dance around it and hesitate like others would have. And she gave no warning, she only winced and apologized after she had removed it and Azula cried out.

She worked quick though, alternating between needle and water. She'd tie three or four stitches and then apply water, bending it skillfully to fill in the cracks and soften the blows. It stung a bit, but eased the pain in the long run.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Katara asked as she stitched.

"Not really." Azula grumbled.

"Does it have anything to do with the dragon that led me here?"

"It might." Azula replied as the creature unfurled its wings and nuzzled against her arm.

"You have to stop doing this." Katara frowned. "One of these days I won't be able to heal you. I don't know what I'll do then." She took Azula's hand. "There, now all we have to do is wait for Zuko to come with our ride home."

Azula shifted positions, flinching as a fresh droplet of blood prickled from the new stitches.

"Careful!" Katara scolded and dabbed the blood away. She scooped the dragon up and placed him in Azula's palms, hoping that it would keep her busy and from hurting herself.

Azula stroked the dragon's head and peered up at Katara. "Thank you." She paused. "For the healing and what not."

"Hopefully I won't have to do it again." Katara replied.

"They would have killed him." Azula pointed out. "There aren't many dragons left. I couldn't just let them hunt this one." She held him out to Katara. "Even if you think it was a dumb thing to do, you can't tell me that you'd have let this precious creature be killed."

Katara sighed, knowing full well that Azula was right. She'd have taken the arrow for the baby dragon too. "I guess we're both idiots then, huh?"

Azula snickered and took in a sharp breath as another sting flared up. Katara squeezed her arm. "At least this time it was worth it." She muttered. She let Katara stroke her back in comforting circles as the dragon bounced from one of her shoulders to the other. It finally found a cozy spot, nestled in her hair, circled, and lie down in a nest of fine black hair. She didn't bother to shoo it off.

"Yeah, we'll have a new pet dragon named…"

"Bloodbath." Azula filled in sardonically. "His name is Bloodbath."

Katara rolled her eyes, "alright, fine his name is Bloodbath." She paused, "but only because I named our last pet." She lifted Azula's shirt again to make sure the wound was staying closed. "Looks like you're gonna live."

"Well that's anti-climatic." Azula shrugged.

Katara gave her arm a light punch. "It means I did a good job."

"If you say so." Azula offered a slight grin. Despite the remarks, she was grateful. More than grateful. She couldn't count how many times Katara had offered her a good healing session; be it for something like this or for something as simple as tired muscles after a long day of training. Some water and a few perfectly placed kisses put most all of her disarrays back in order. She was going to thank her again and tell her just how much her healing meant. But she held her tongue. They may be three months into their relationship but Azula wouldn't for a second let Katara think she had gone _that_ soft.


End file.
